President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama await the arrival of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and his wife, Mrs Gursharan Kaur, for the State Dinner at the White House, Nov. 24, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Obama/Kerry = best policy team since Bush I/Jim Baker. Congress is finally becoming embarrassed by Netanyahu’s efforts to dictate US policy.

Washington Post: World Powers Reach Nuclear Deal With Iran To Freeze Its Nuclear Program

Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday on a historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions. The agreement, sealed at a 3 a.m. signing ceremony in Geneva’s Palace of Nations, requires Iran to halt or scale back parts of its nuclear infrastructure, the first such pause in more than a decade.

The deal, intended as a first step toward a more comprehensive nuclear pact to be completed in six months, freezes or reverses progress at all of Iran’s major nuclear facilities, according to Western officials familiar with the details. It halts the installation of new centrifuges used to enrich uranium and caps the amount and type of enriched uranium that Iran is allowed to produce.

Iran also agreed to halt work on key components of a heavy-water reactor that could someday provide Iran with a source of plutonium. In addition, Iran accepted a dramatic increase in oversight, including daily monitoring by international nuclear inspectors, the officials said. The concessions not only halt Iran’s nuclear advances but also make it virtually impossible for Tehran to build a nuclear weapon without being detected, the officials said. In return, Iran will receive modest relief of trade sanctions and access to some of its frozen currency accounts overseas, concessions said to be valued at less than $7 billion over the six-month term of the deal. The sanctions would be reinstated if Iran violates the agreement’s terms.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns has led a secret U.S. back channel to Iran going back to before the June election of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, U.S. officials told Al-Monitor. Burns was tapped to lead the US diplomatic effort to establish a bilateral channel with Iran, which gained momentum after the exchange of letters between US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Rouhani in early August, US officials said.

Led by Burns, the US’s second highest ranking diplomat and a former lead US Iran nuclear negotiator, the US effort to form direct diplomatic contacts with Iran also includes two officials from the Obama White House: Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, and Puneet Talwar, the National Security Staff senior director for Iran, Iraq, and Persian Gulf affairs, US officials confirmed. Talwar’s role in back channel discussions with Iran was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Iran’s leadership Sunday hailed the interim nuclear deal brokered in Geneva between Iranian envoys and representatives of the United States and five other world powers. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, thanked President Hassan Rouhani and his negotiating team in a message that called the Geneva talks a “success,” a crucial sign of support from the nation’s ultimate arbiter of national security issues.

The Iranian president, meantime, gave a nationally televised address labeling the agreement a breakthrough that could eventually help eliminate the vise of international sanctions, which have put a stranglehold on Iran’s economy in recent years. Rouhani, a soft-spoken cleric and longtime government insider, was elected in June on a pledge to work toward alleviating the crippling sanctions and heighten Tehran’s engagement with the world. The deal brokered in Geneva represents a major political victory for the new president, who faces opposition at home from hard-liners opposed to any perceived compromise with the West.

After feverishly trying to derail the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran in recent weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has little choice but to accept an agreement that he has derided as deeply flawed.

Netanyahu believes the six-month deal leaves Iran’s military nuclear capabilities largely intact, while giving Iran relief from painful economic sanctions, undermining negotiations on the next stage. At the same time, Israel’s strongest piece of leverage, the threat of a military strike on Iran, seems to be out of the question despite Netanyahu’s insistence it would remain on the table.

U.S. officials said Sunday’s deal was just a first step and further negotiations aim for a final agreement that would prevent any threat from Iran’s nuclear program. They said the relief from sanctions was minimal and that the most biting economic measures, including sanctions on Iran’s vital oil industry, remained in place and more could be imposed if Iran fails to follow through.

The United States and Iran secretly engaged in a series of high-level, face-to-face talks over the past year, in a high-stakes diplomatic gamble by the Obama administration that paved the way for the historic deal sealed early Sunday in Geneva aimed at slowing Tehran’s nuclear program, The Associated Press has learned.

The discussions were kept hidden even from America’s closest friends, including its negotiating partners and Israel, until two months ago, and that may explain how the nuclear accord appeared to come together so quickly after years of stalemate and fierce hostility between Iran and the West. President Barack Obama personally authorized the talks as part of his effort – promised in his first inaugural address – to reach out

The talks were held in the Middle Eastern nation of Oman and elsewhere with only a tight circle of people in the know, the AP learned. Since March, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Jake Sullivan, Vice President Joe Biden’s top foreign policy adviser, have met at least five times with Iranian officials.

Government of the People. That’s what Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg one hundred and fifty years ago this week. Government of the People, by the People, and for the People. Lincoln was, of course, referring to the Preamble of the United States’ Constitution, the bit that goes “We the People of the United States…”

More, Lincoln’s speech reached directly back to the fundamental principles outlined by the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, i.e. the Founder’s demand for a government that does the business of its people first and foremost, one that operates with the consent of the governed, and a government that is directly answerable to its citizens.

That’s the idea, right? That’s how America is supposed to work. We can all of us, left and right, republican and democrat, moderate and progressive, whateverside of America we’ve chosen to plant our flag on, surely we can all at least agree to that basic principle. Right? Right. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And sure, that sounds good. In theory. As a sound bite. There’s just one problem. The people.

in a state where the rollout has gone smoothly, and in a county that is one of the poorest and unhealthiest in the country, Courtney Lively has been busy signing people up: cashiers from the IGA grocery, clerks from the dollar store, workers from the lock factory, call-center agents, laid-off coal miners, KFC cooks, Chinese green-card holders in town to teach Appalachian students.

Now it was the beginning of another day, and a man Lively would list as Client 375 sat across from her in her office at a health clinic next to a Hardee’s. “So, is that Breathitt County?” she asked Woodrow Wilson Noble as she tapped his information into a laptop Thursday morning. “Yeah, we live on this side of the hill,” said Noble, whose family farm had gone under, who lived on food stamps and what his mother could spare, and who was about to hear whether he would have health insurance for the first time in his 60-year-old life. “All right,” she said. “We’ve got you eligible for Medicaid.”

“Okay, Woodrow, now you get to shop a little bit,” she said, explaining options he’d never had before. “If you go to the doctor, all you’re going to pay is $1,” she began. “If you’re in the hospital for an extended period, you should only be billed $5. . . . If you get medicine, generics are $1 and brand is $4. . . . You can go to the dentist once a month — exams, X-rays and cleanings are covered. . . . Now for your teeth, the plan does take care of having them pulled and does take care of fillings,

As one of those people who is supposed to help Illinoisans find new options for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Joann Boblick figured she should check out healthcare.gov and see how it works. Glitches with the website have kept many Americans from viewing insurance plans available. But Boblick was able to get through to Illinois’ marketplace on healthcare.gov. She also found an insurance plan that will be cheaper than the one she has.

“The first time, I got nowhere. The site just said come back later. The second time, I decided to come back later because I was waiting too long,” said Boblick, 36, of Western Springs. “The third time was the charm.” Boblick currently pays a premium of $340 a month with a deductible of $6,000. The Blue Choice Bronze PPO 006 that she enrolled in on Oct. 7 costs $185 a month with the same deductible and offers the same doctors, dentists and hospitals she has now. That’s even though Boblick made too much money — about $65,000 — to qualify for a subsidy to pay for a new insurance plan.

For those still waiting to log on at HealthCare.gov, Boblick suggested people think of getting insurance as they would think of getting a new iPhone the first day. “People wait days for an iPhone. Care about it that much,” she said. “Realize it’s more important than the iPhone.”

So how should we rate the interim deal? At first sight it appears to be a good one – certainly from the big powers’ perspective, going further than perhaps many commentators had expected. The chief goal was to prevent Iran from forging ahead with its nuclear activities even as talks were continuing. If fully implemented the deal seems to do just that: All uranium enrichment above 5% is to be halted. The entire stockpile of 20% enriched material to be diluted or converted to a form not suitable for further enrichment. This 20% enriched uranium is the feedstock that Iran could use to “dash” towards weapons grade material.

No more centrifuges (the machines used to enrich material) are to be installed, and large numbers of the existing banks of centrifuges are to be left inoperable. Iran’s stockpile of 3.5% enriched uranium is to remain the same between now and the end of the six-month period. So any excess material will have to be converted to oxide form. In broad terms there will be no further construction or experimental work for the Arak reactor which Western experts fear could be used – once it is commissioned – for its plutonium, giving Iran a second route towards a nuclear bomb

In return Iran has received what the White House insists is “limited, temporary and reversible relief” in terms of economic sanctions.. For a start if Iran abides by the deal there will be no new economic sanctions over the coming six months. Certain sanctions on gold, precious metals, Iran’s auto sector and Iran’s petrochemical exports are to be suspended, providing Iran with about $1.5bn of revenue. Safety-related repairs and inspections are to be sanctioned for some of Iran’s civil airliners. Some $4.2bn from Iranian oil sales will be allowed to be transferred to Iran. Some $400m of Iranian funds can be transferred to educational institutions in third countries to pay the fees of Iranian students studying there

First Lady Michelle Obama claps during the entertainment portion of the State Dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India (Photo by Pete Souza)

The President and First Lady wait for Indian Prime Minister Singh’s motorcade to depart the White House at the conclusion of the first official state dinner for the Obama administration, Nov. 24, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama greets the Sinkfield family in the Outer Oval Office, Nov. 24, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Obama talks with a young customer as he packs and delivers bags of food to area residents at Martha’s Table, November 24, 2010

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Nov. 24, 2011 – Pete Souza: “I photograph a lot of presidential phone calls from the Oval Office. But rarely is the light like this, backlit and reflecting back from a briefing paper. On Thanksgiving Day, the President made phone calls to 10 U.S. military service members — two each from the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy — to thank them for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.”

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President Obama arrives at ‘One More Page Books’ on Small Business Saturday, Arlington, Virginia, November 24, 2012

One of the best. Everyone does a great job. Your timing is perfect. Just wish you were on MDT. ;) I think your getting better every time. And when there is important news, there is no where else to go.
UT it was a great Rise and shine.
Congrats to Don on first.

No wonder the jacket manufacturer put this on a NYC billboard. PBO looks stunning in his jacket. Laws forced the manufaturer to remove the billboard but in his public apology he mentioned that The President is a very goodlooking man.

Delegates agreed to the broad outlines of a proposed system for pledging emissions cuts and gave their support for a new treaty mechanism to tackle the human cost of rising seas, floods, stronger storms and other expected effects of global warming”…….

I hope someone explained to David Frum how the “carrot and stick” approach works. He does not seem to have grasped that basic concept yet. Or, of course, he may be back to spouting purely partisan GOP talking points.
Must have got his old job back.

Well that’s because the WHPC are more concerned about taking unflattering pictures of the first dog “BO” as we runs around the Whitehouse occasionally stopping to smell his nuts. I mean really, on Thursday and Friday the most pressing issue for the WHPC was their complaining about not having unfettered access to the Whitehouse.

The GOP is shaking in their boots about another soon to be checkmark: “Fixed website”. Lmao – that’s the ONLY thing they can find to whine about now; now that the economy is in recovery, the DOW is hitting all time records every day and the deficit is in meltDOWN mode.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the agreement with Iran as a historic mistake that left the production of atomic weapons within Tehran’s reach. Netanyahu told his cabinet his government would not be bound by the deal. But Israeli investors ignored such talk from Netanyahu and other lawmakers and doubt Israel will attack Iran on its own……

“Israeli investors see a lower risk of conflict despite what politicians have to say. An agreement is reducing the odds of a military conflict,” said Roni Biron, senior analyst at UBS Israel. “Investors are reading … that this is a positive agreement. Investors are liking any agreement that is done in a diplomatic way. They prefer that to a military conflict.”

Good Morning, Don and all you TODobots! I haven’t read anything yet, but I’d bet you are all grinning and brimming with joy and gladness that you’re feeling truly #BlessedToBeAliveInHisTime.

Greetings, Utal! Thank you for this morning’s R & S! I confess I did miss you last night. That’s the first time I remember you not being ‘in the thick of things’. I guess you were making up for some of those sleepless TOD-nights you’ve been having, or did you and Chips tag-off? Chips was actually here in the midst of the action – she didn’t even doze off!!!! I was quite surpr…….. happy for her!

This is a sensible deal – signed off on by France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China – but it is just an interim deal and not a historic rapprochement. And that’s why so much of the opposition to it is misplaced.
Washington has many points of disagreement with Tehran, from its opposition to Israel and its support of Hezbollah to its funding of Iraq militias. This is not like the opening to China – it’s more like an arms control deal with the Soviet Union, with two wary adversaries trying to find some common ground.
Many countries in the Middle East – from Israel to Saudi Arabia – have legitimate concerns about Iran. But many of these countries have also gotten used to having a permanent enemy against whom they could rail, focusing domestic attention, driving ideological and sectarian divides, and garnering support.
The Middle East is undergoing so much change. Perhaps this is one more change. And perhaps Iran will come in from the Cold. For now, this deal is just one step, not a seismic shift. But it is still a step forward.

Do you suppose the day will come when a Republican will reflect on how they have behaved during this presidency and express regret? Suppose any one of them will ever admit that the nation could have moved so much further so much faster had it not been for them. Do you think just one of them will admit that they were grossly misleading and unfair? Will they ever give President Obama his due?

It’s not just the Republicans. Many, many others will need to some serious reflection about THEIR roles in spreading lies and enabling GOP obstruction just to get their kicks and stuff money in their already over-filled pockets…

Even the MSM must be beginning to understand the full depth of their irrelevance; whining about photo-access on Friday, while historic negotiations were taking place and being reported by people (literally) working 24/7? And all MSM jumping on the photo-op pity party, including the “esteemed” NYT.

Wonderful roundup of this weekend’s historic events and gorgeous reminder of my favorite State Dinner with India. Love everything about Michelle’s appearance, can’t believe 4 years have passed since that event.

Don’t watch the Sunday shows; wonder what kind of glorious meltdown is going on over at the networks.

Another thing I love about this thread is the @LRozen tweet reporting on the pivotal role of female negotiators in today’s global diplomacy. If you follow @LRozen’s twitter timeline, this has been apparent for some time, but I’m glad she wrote the article and that it was front-paged here at TOD.

Make Annie Lowrey’s whining about gender disparity look petty, shallow and self-serving (which of course confirms everything we already know to be true about Lowrey).

Bob Schieffer on his program today, per mediaite, claimed to have been asked by many while on an air plane if this Geneva agreement was the result of ACA website woes. AP said today that the Iran contacts have gone on now for a year. These people are sick basta*ds.

desertflower, I think the day is fast approaching when very few people in the USA will believe anything that the GOPMSMTP says.
Citizen participation is nullifying Orwell’s vision in the nick of time.
Darkness was almost complete in 2007. We watched and listened and to some extent counted on the MSM version of all things.

The Campaign of 2008, social media and a transformational honest President have lifted the veil of lies. And the forces of love and peace will continue to grow and prevail.

| in BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. — On the campaign trail, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was still blasting the new health-care law as unsalvageable. At the White House, President Obama was still apologizing for the botched federal Web site.

But in a state where the rollout has gone smoothly, and in a county that is one of the poorest and unhealthiest in the country, Courtney Lively has been busy signing people up: cashiers from the IGA grocery, clerks from the dollar store, workers from the lock factory, call-center agents, laid-off coal miners, KFC cooks, Chinese green-card holders in town to teach Appalachian students.

The debate these Days is What pres Obama says, does……are quickly argued, discussed, dissected, trashed by the media, the righties, emoprogs, etc without anyone of them proviing any Reasonable solution or asked for a worthy adversary contribution to further the debate. That is now the standard Foxification of our 4th Estate.

It is a beautiful day, and I am grateful to be a part of this TOD village of the brightest and best. Thank you Chips and UT, and all of the great minds here who contribute to this beautiful haven that has been created by Chips.

I am slow, but I had to start and read everything after having my grateful quiet time giving thanks for our President and his team. Through his actions along with all who were involved alongside of him, may blessings flow to all who can see light coming forth into their space. May their lives be full of goodness of deeds for generations to come.

Now, I need to get some breakfast and start on the Rise and Shine. I just had to say, Good Morning to my Chips, our brilliant and handsome Danny and all of my TOD family. Lots of love and gentleness coming from my home to yours. Listening to our president is always uplifting. He is the leader that we need at this time. What a joy to know that he is our President of the United States during this time.HZ

Western stock markets are closed on Sundays, but Israel’s exchange is open and its ongoing rally is continuing as the market reaches a new high today.
The kind of punditry where you draw a direct connection between a news event and a stock market rally can get a bit lame. But let’s put it this way. Suppose this deal were the kind of national security disaster for Israel that congressional Republicans are making it out to be—wouldn’t Israeli markets be tanking? One of the neat things about financial markets in this regard is that there’s no percentage in bullshitting. You want to sell sell sell Israeli assets if and only if you actually have reason to believe some bad news about Israel has just hit the wires. In politics, there’s often an upside to bullshitting. Right now, we have a lot of bearishness on Israel from politicians who see gains in painting Obama’s policy as bad for Israel. But in financial markets, we see nothing but bullishness.

The United States began a tentative outreach shortly after Mr Obama’s inauguration in January 2009. Mr Obama and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, exchanged letters, but the engagement yielded no results.
In the end, it was efforts to win the release of three American hikers who had strayed across the Iranian border which led to the clandestine diplomacy.
Oman’s Sultan Qaboos was a key player, facilitating the release of the hikers in late 2010 and 2011 and then offering himself as a mediator for a US-Iran rapprochement. The secret informal discussions between mid-level officials in Washington and Tehran began.
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Some reports said in March of 2013. This one went further. These talks are never done in a flash. It took time to get to where we are today.

Good Afternoon….a day to be a PROUD and THANKFUL American……I wanted to share this with you to show how PBO’s influence is always not realized….I pick up my 10 yr old Grandson(who’s Father is a Republican but not Teaparty kind, YIKES) from school on Thursdays…For the past several Thursdays he has done a little complaining about his teacher, which is unusual….This Thursday he said, “She just doesn’t like me no matter how hard I try and do, just like President Obama. No matter what he does people say ugly things about him.”…..I said, “I’m sorry you feel like your teacher doesn’t like you, I know that hurts but how does President Obama handle it when people say negative things about him?”…..and he said, “He doesn’t pay any attention to them and just keeps on keeping on doing his job.”…..and I said, “Well there you go, and I’ll show you a youtube of President Obama just brushing it off his shoulder.” and I did and PBO got a little 10 yr. old through a sticky situation…….so add that to your lists of accomplishments.

that is a great story! Thanks for sharing it. You just never know when someone is going to role model for what to do in a difficult time. I like the idea that even though your grandson doesn’t know PBO personally he still can take a lesson from him. As do we all. I just find it satisfying when a kid understands it too.

Thanks Kathryn Kivett for sharing this beautiful conversation that you had with your 10 yr. old grandson. This makes it all so sweet to continue to work hard to help President Obama. The future has to be on a better level for the bright and beautiful minds of millions and millions all over the world just like your beautiful grandson. We will continue to give our greatness of goodness to make it happen for all of them.

Do tell your beautiful grandson that there are people who are working hard to help President Obama help him to speak out with respect, compassion, and with a brilliant mind to converse with this teacher and others in the future to learn to stop and listen to him and have a reasonable mind towards him for his contributions to make this a better world for all of his classmates.

We are proud of your grandson. Thank him for all of us. And thank you for taking the time to listen to him and be presence in your listening, and showing him by example how to keep reaching toward his best as a young thinker and doer in his space. Blessings. HZ